Assembly committee advances updates to the density-bonus law to boost affordable-home production

Assemblymember Alvarez presented AB 24 33 to update Californias Density Bonus Law, seeking to increase take-up of existing incentives and make it easier for projects that include affordable units to qualify for bonus benefits.

The sponsor witnesses said density-bonus law has accounted for large volumes of entitled units in recent years and that a significant number of eligible projects fail to claim the benefits because applicants are not proactively informed or due to technical calculation issues. The bill would require local governments to notify applicants when a project appears eligible, allow deed restrictions at deeper affordability levels to count toward bonus calculations, permit floor-area-ratio (FAR) calculations where appropriate, and reaffirm that bonuses are ministerial, not discretionary.

Supporters including Circulate, SPUR and other housing organizations described the changes as modest, targeted fixes that would expand usage of a law they called the states most effective housing-production tool. The committee voted to move the bill as amended to the next committee.